Turks celebrate Father Christmas as local hero

Saint Nicholas

Born in 270AD in the then-Greek town of Patara, he travelled to Palestine and Egypt, before returning to become bishop of Myra.

Imprisoned during the reign of Roman emperor Diocletian, but later released by his successor Constantine

After his death in 343AD, his burial site by his church in Myra became a shrine

Sailors stole his remains in 1087 and took them to Bari in Italy, where they remain enshrined

He became the patron saint of children and sailors, as well as of various countries, including Russia and Greece.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica

  Saint Nicholas By Mark Lowen - BBC News, Demre, Turkey

It's almost 6,000km (3,730 miles) from the North Pole and there's not an elf in sight. But trace the roots of the sleigh-riding chap in red and you will arrive in the southern Turkish town of Demre. This was the home of the man whose legend inspired Father Christmas.

The story begins in the 4th Century, when Demre was called Myra and the region Lycia. Ancient ruins testify to the town's importance: a beautiful Roman amphitheatre and rock-cut tombs built into the mountain remain, the burial place of the wealthy residents.

Nicholas, the Bishop of Myra, was a much-loved figure. Born to wealthy parents, he was known for his good deeds, immortalised in legends told for generations.

In one, he is said to have visited a butcher who had murdered and pickled three boys to sell them as ham. Nicholas miraculously brought them back to life.

In another - the most famous - he heard of a poor merchant who could not afford a dowry for his daughters and feared they would be sold into slavery. Nicholas arrived at night, throwing purses of gold into the house. Told and retold, one version has the windows barred, forcing Nicholas to hurl the coins down the chimney, landing - yes, you guessed it - in the girl's stockings hung up to dry.

He was canonised soon after his death, and the St Nicholas Church now lies in the centre of Demre. Pilgrims come every year from across the world to venerate him during a packed December service.

"In the West, we seem to have everything, but in fact we have a lack of love in our hearts, so we need someone to visit us even once a year, to give us that love," says Father Amvrosios Chorozidis, who leads the liturgy.

"It makes me happy that the person I love, St Nicholas, was born here - and that the whole world waits for something from him each year."

Stories of Nicholas's kindliness spread after his death. So loved was he that his bones were stolen from his tomb here in 1087 and removed to Italy, for fear they would be overrun by the invading Turks.

He became the patron saint of children and sailors, as well as of various countries, including Russia and Greece.

But the transformation of his image from humble bishop to magical man in red took some time. European settlers, notably the Dutch, took his legend with them as they arrived in the New World.

The Vikings even dedicated a cathedral to him in Greenland. For centuries the stories spread.

"Then in the New York of the 1800s, they were looking for ways to create nostalgic traditions and they turned to Nicholas as a way of establishing a connection with culture," says Prof Adam English of Campbell University in North Carolina, author of The Saint who would be Santa.

"And they reintroduced him no longer as a Christian bishop but as an elf of sorts, something mischievous. Then with the famous poem The Night Before Christmas and the illustrations of cartoonists, we have the image of Santa Claus."

Coca-Cola began using the image of the jovial Santa in its advertising from the 1930s, entrenching his appearance in popular culture.

Around the St Nicholas Church in Demre, businesses have cashed in on the fame, selling icons of the saint but also plenty of Santa knick-knacks.  In 2005, the town's mayor replaced a bronze statue of St Nicholas with a Disney-like plastic cast of Santa. After protests, the original was put back and Santa moved across the road. There are differing views of the man who should be immortalised here.

"This is the real mystical thing, not what's been commercialised," says Evie, an Austrian who attends the yearly St Nicholas service with her Greek husband.  "It's important to remember the original, true story."

A worshipper from Cyprus, welling up with tears, tells me her name is Nikki. "And so he's my saint. I'm proud of that. He helped a lot of people - and he still helps me every day."

And yet, compared to his later incarnation, the story of Nicholas of Myra is known by so few. Prof English tells me it's important that the origins are not forgotten.  "I'm not against the figure of Santa Claus but for many people, he's become a sort of vapid, hollow character," he says, "and they're interested in finding someone with meat on it, with roots and tradition.

"Rediscovering historical Nicholas is a way to check the over-commercialisation. He advocated justice and stood up for his fellow citizens. Lots of stories are missing if we simply focus on him as a gift-giver."

The journey from humble Byzantine bishop to the portly figure not averse to a tipple at the bottom of a chimney has been a long one. Turkey does not officially celebrate Christmas but here in Demre "Noel Baba" is still embraced as their own famous son.

And so, as stockings are hung up and a glass of sherry left out, spare a thought for the man whose story inspired it all. Let's hope the reindeer have scheduled in an extra special stop in Demre.

Link to Original Articule - http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-30577800

A Christmas Thought

As we get older, our Christmas list gets smaller and we find out that the things we really want can't be bought.

Poem for Christmas by Alexander McCall Smith

At Christmas time, and always I would like to wish all the readers of the books a very joyful Christmas and a good New Year. Thank you for all your support over the year, and may the next few days be a time of peace for you.

I have written a poem for this Christmas. Here it is. The title is "At Christmas time, and always":

How we remember the past

Depends on how we experience the present:

The great insight of Marcel Proust

In his long-winded but entirely delightful

Novel was that the present

Mediates the past, unlocks its secrets;

So that which we taste or smell

Today determines what we think

We saw or felt in the past;

Proust’s memories came to him

When he took the madeleine cake

With tea; how strange that a shell-shaped

Cake, tasting of lemon, should taste too

Of a whole world of country houses

And walks and eccentric relations,

And the entire rich landscape of France.

All of us, I think, have some olfactory trigger

That will take us back to a time

When our present seemed somehow simpler,

When the countours of an unhappy world

Seemed so less uncertain, when life

Seemed a predictable and more manageable matter

Of navigation between now and a future

We felt entitled to; when the thought

Of growing up, falling in love,

And finding something to do

Were not impossible challenges,

But were things we could not wait to embrace.

For me, the smell of oranges and marzipan,

And subtle whiffs of candle smoke

Mean Christmas; just as surely

As that smell that precedes a storm in Africa,

That curious smell of rain, presages a downpour,

And all the rolling thunder of those great

Cumulo-nimbus clouds, those purple banks

Of air-borne moisture eager to fall.

Childhood memories are still there,

Come to the fore when one closes one’s eyes,

And allows tastes and smells

To compose the courtyard of our recognition;

These memories may be of happiness

And love that is yet to be rebuffed,

Not believing that anybody could turn us down,

Could not think of us as we think of ourselves.

My dear, at Christmas, you shyly ask

What my wish might be; all you can take

Away with you at the end, as the old adage has it,

Is that which you’ve given away, nothing more.

So I ask, instead, for you;

That you may find flowers where you thought

No flowers were; that you may not want

For the things you wished you had;

That your heart may be full, that you

May feel there’s nothing more

You could reasonably wish to do;

That you may hear the music you

Prefer to hear, that you may spend time

With the friends you want about you;

That you may never hear the same thing

Twice if you would have preferred

Not to hear it the first time round;

That people may listen to what you say

And laugh in all the right places;

That you may be happy and close your eyes

Indifferent to any terrors of the night;

That, and more, I wish for you

At Christmas time, and always.

AMcS

News Snippets Archive

News Snippets Archive

Le Poulain”, the totemic animal of Pézenas honoured

“Le Poulain”, the totemic animal of Pézenas, was honoured recently at a festival in Barcelona. The totemic animal and symbol of the town of Pézenas, was acknowledged as “décerné aux Amis du Poulain dans le cadre des festivitas bestiarum”

80 km/h speed limit trials starts this year
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Insurance Cancellation 

From now, you are able to cancel your home or motor French insurance policy at any time AFTER the first 12 months. This replaces the current procedure where you could only cancel a French policy within a set time limited before the annual renewal date. _{Jan 2015}

Smoke Detector - New Legislation

From 8th March 2015, it will become a legal obligation for every house in France to have a working smoke alarm fitted. Once fitted, the house owner MUST inform their insurer.  _{Dec 2104}

French Stamps go up in price on January 1st 2015

Pricing of postage stamps in France will increase from the first of January 2015. First class will increase to 76 cents (from 66 cents) and stamps to UK/Europe will increase to 95 cents from 83 cents.  _{Dec 2014}

Nine Reasons People Aren’t Singing in Worship

The following article appeared on an American Baptist website (http://blog.ncbaptist.org).

Is it True or False reflection of singing in C of E Churches today?

Nine Reasons People Aren’t Singing in Worship by Kenny Lamm

Worship leaders around the world are sadly changing their church’s worship (often unintentionally) into a spectator event, and people are not singing any more.

Before discussing our present situation, let’s look back into history. Prior to the Reformation, worship was largely done for the people. The music was performed by professional musicians and sung in an unfamiliar language (Latin). The Reformation gave worship back to the people, including congregational singing which employed simple, attainable tunes with solid, scriptural lyrics in the language of the people. Worship once again became participatory.

The evolution of the printed hymnal brought with it an explosion of congregational singing and the church’s love for singing increased.

With the advent of new video technologies, churches began to project the lyrics of their songs on a screen, and the number of songs at a church’s disposal increased exponentially. 

At first, this advance in technology led to more powerful congregational singing, but soon, a shift in worship leadership began to move the congregation back to pre-Reformation pew potatoes (spectators).

What has occurred could be summed up as the re-professionalization of church music and the loss of a key goal of worship leading – enabling the people to sing their praises to God. Simply put, we are breeding a culture of spectators in our churches, changing what should be a participative worship environment to a concert event. Worship is moving to its pre-Reformation mess.

I see nine reasons congregations aren’t singing anymore:

1  They don’t know the songs. With the release of new songs weekly and the increased birthing of locally-written songs, worship leaders are providing a steady diet of the latest, greatest worship songs. Indeed, we should be singing new songs, but too high a rate of new song inclusion in worship can kill our participation rate and turn the congregation into spectators. I see this all the time. I advocate doing no more than one new song in a worship service, and then repeating the song on and off for several weeks until it becomes known by the congregation. People worship best with songs they know, so we need to teach and reinforce the new expressions of worship.

2  We are singing songs not suitable for congregational singing. There are lots of great, new worship songs today, but in the vast pool of new songs, many are not suitable for congregational singing by virtue of their rhythms (too difficult for the average singer) or too wide of a range (consider the average singer—not the vocal superstar on stage).

3  We are singing in keys too high for the average singer. The people we are leading in worship generally have a limited range and do not have a high range. When we pitch songs in keys that are too high, the congregation will stop singing, tire out, and eventually quit, becoming spectators. Remember that our responsibility is to enable the congregation to sing their praises, not to showcase our great platform voices by pitching songs in our power ranges. The basic range of the average singer is an octave and a fourth from A to D.

4  The congregation can’t hear people around them singing.  If our music is too loud for people to hear each other singing, it is too loud. Conversely, if the music is too quiet, generally, the congregation will fail to sing out with power. Find the right balance—strong, but not over-bearing.

5  We have created worship services which are spectator events, building a performance environment. I am a strong advocate of setting a great environment for worship including lighting, visuals, inclusion of the arts, and much more. However when our environments take things to a level that calls undue attention to those on stage or distracts from our worship of God, we have gone too far. Excellence – yes. Highly professional performance – no.

6  The congregation feels they are not expected to sing. As worship leaders, we often get so involved in our professional production of worship that we fail to be authentic, invite the congregation into the journey of worship, and then do all we can to facilitate that experience in singing familiar songs, new songs introduced properly, and all sung in the proper congregational range.

7  We fail to have a common body of hymnody. With the availability of so many new songs, we often become haphazard in our worship planning, pulling songs from so many sources without reinforcing the songs and helping the congregation to take them on as a regular expression of their worship. In the old days, the hymnal was that repository. Today, we need to create song lists to use in planning our times of worship.

8  Worship leaders ad lib too much. Keep the melody clear and strong. The congregation is made up of sheep with limited ranges and limited musical ability. When we stray from the melody to ad lib, the sheep try to follow us and end up frustrated and quit singing. Some ad lib is nice and can enhance worship, but don’t let it lead your sheep astray.

9  Worship leaders are not connecting with the congregation. We often get caught up in our world of amazing music production and lose sight of our purpose of helping the congregation to voice their worship. Let them know you expect them to sing. Quote the Bible to promote their expressions of worship. Stay alert to how well the congregation is tracking with you and alter course as needed.

Once worship leaders regain the vision of enabling the congregation to be participants in the journey of corporate worship, I believe we can return worship to the people once again.